Fire & Ice

Ice coat: Volunteer Capital City Fire and Rescue firefighter Sam Russell stands covered in ice as he puts out "hot spots" Saturday at Fisherman's Bend.

Test, Alan Suderman, photo Michael Penn / Juneau Empire
Click to enlarge.

I saw this in the paper this morning and it reminded me of my friend Bobby, who retired from the Fairbanks Fire Department as Battalion Chief. When he was with the FFD, they wrote a book called "Fairbanks Through The Smoke." There is one story from the 40s about fighting fires when the temperatures are below zero, and coming home with turnouts so frozen that the firefighters had to chip the ice off themselves and then lay down on the floor and have their wives pull them off of them -- it just wasn't possible to bend enough to do it themselves. It is amazing that people will do something like that. It shows just how incredible human beings can be and elicits my admiration.

Heroes

Yesterday I posted on why I'm not a Clinton supporter. And today I'm posting Kucinich's platform, so that you will understand why I'm solidly in his camp.

Meanwhile, Viggo Mortensen, angered by Dennis Kucinich's exclusion from the last New Hampshire debate, has flown out to New Hampshire to campaign for and with him. When he appeared on Hannity & Colmes, Hannity had the bad fortune to tell him, "I'm going to forgive your politics."
Answered our hero, "You don't have to. I'm not going to forgive you yours."



Kucinich’s platform:

* Creating a single-payer system of universal health care that provides full coverage for all Americans by passage of the United States National Health Insurance Act.
* The immediate, phased withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq; replacing them with an international security force.
* Guaranteed quality education for all; including free pre-kindergarten and college for all who want it.
* Immediate withdrawal from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
* Repealing the USA PATRIOT Act.
* Fostering a world of international cooperation.
* Abolishing the death penalty.
* Environmental renewal and clean energy.
* Preventing the privatization of social security.
* Providing full social security benefits at age 65.
* Creating a cabinet-level “Department of Peace”
* Ratifying the ABM Treaty and the Kyoto Protocol.
* Introducing reforms to bring about instant-runoff voting.
* Protecting a woman’s right to choose while decreasing the number of abortions performed in the U.S.
* Ending the War on Drugs.
* Legalizing same-sex marriage.
* Creating a balance between workers and corporations.
* Ending the H-1B and L-1 visa Programs
* Restoring rural communities and family farms.
* Strengthening gun control.

Photos: Aragorn courtesy of Lovelylivtyler.com
Dennis Kucinich by Vatosplace.com

Tiger Attack

Tatiana and Tony
On Christmas day, just after closing, a tiger got loose in the San Francisco Zoo, killed a 17 year old and mauled two brothers in their early 20s. When police arrived, she was in the act of mauling one of the brothers, and she was killed. Her name was Tatiana, and she was an extremely rare 350 pound Siberian tiger who had been brought to the zoo to be part of a breeding program. and meantime was a companion to 15 year old Tony.

The incident is still under investigation. Although the wall of the tiger enclosure was shorter than recommended, this is the first time that a tiger has ever gotten over it. Or, so far as is known, even tried to get over it. A captive animal is not nearly the athlete that a wild one is, and the 12 1/2 foot wall plus moat had always been more than enough to contain the cats. However, if a big cat is angry, it is capable of amazing feats of strength.*

The discovery of pine cones, sticks, and a large rock in the moat (where they could not have come naturally) initially caused many to consider that the Daliwal brothers might have been taunting Tatiana. The later revelation that Jennifer Miller saw four men at the lion house at 4:30, just about half an hour before Tatiana broke out, three of which were taunting the lions, adds strength to this possibility. Mrs. Miller stated that she recognized Carlos Sousa, the 17 year old victim, as the only member of the group who was behaving. The Daliwal brothers and an unknown fourth party were roaring at the lions in a manner which upset them and so disturbed Mrs. Miller that she took her children and left. It is not entirely beyond belief that if the men would taunt animals when the zoo was still open and there were witnesses around, they would escalate their taunting after the zoo closed and there were no witnesses. The discovery of an empty vodka bottle in their car adds one more piece of evidence. Although it has not been corroborated by the San Francisco police, the New York Post reported that the brothers had slingshots in their pockets when they were rescued.

Reports indicate that after the tiger jumped the fence she attacked one of the Daliwal brothers. Carlos Sousa yelled at her to distract her; she then attacked him and the Daliwal brothers ran away. Tatiana left Sousa and followed the blood trail to the closed cafe where the brothers had managed to attract attention and get the staff to call 911. Tatiana had mauled both brothers when the police arrived and shot her.

As of Thursday, January 3, the brothers hadn't called Sousa's father, and apparently weren't talking to authorities, but they had hired an attorney who plans to sue.

In the SFGate.com article about Mrs. Miller's information, there were 1246 comments as of 10:30 Thursday night. A few defended the Daliwal brothers; most expressed sadness for the deaths of Carlos Sousa and Tatiana, who would seem to be the innocent victims in this story, and anger at the Daliwals for causing this tragedy and apparently preparing to cash in on it.

Carlos Sousa was a brave young man. He lost his life saving the lives of two young men who may have called this attack upon themselves and who then ran away and left him to be killed. His family is left grieving his loss. For them, Christmas will always be tainted by the memories of this horror.

I totally understand the need to kill Tatiana before she could harm anyone else. But, I agree with the comment writers who consider her to be one of the victims. If you taunt a tiger, you might expect to get mauled. If you taunt a captive tiger, you might deserve to get mauled. Tatiana was being a tiger. That was her nature. Just like her affection for Tony was her nature.

Assuming that the Daliwal brothers and the unknown fourth man Mrs. Miller saw did taunt Tatiana, am I totally awful to think that the wrong two may have died that day?

* I once had an 18 1/2 year old, four and a half pound cat named Missy. She was old and arthritic. When she walked, it was slowly and carefully. She looked like a little old lady cat. Six weeks before she died, she was sleeping on my shoulder and she suddenly came wide awake and jumped off. By the time I could turn around, there was only a tail left of the mouse. Cats are predators. Even the mildest of them.

Update
Anvilcloud commented that " Some males of a certain age can be most obnoxious." Which reminds me that I read that 98% of rattlesnake bites that come into ERs are on the hand of a drunk male between 19 and 27. And there are two bites. So drunk they try to pick up a rattlesnake. Twice.

Photo of Tatiana and Tony by chadh

Discovering Nature

I was thinking, after yesterday's post, about how we discover the nature of things. Particularly the nature of the young child. I used to wonder how it was possible for my great-grandfather, who was a math professor, to be so unobservant as to misunderstand infant dependence for selfishness. To think that the crying new born even knew that her mother was exhausted in the next room.

And I can now see, with knowing that the idea was not original with him*, but rather a part of the dogma of his ancestors' religion, how that came to pass. Because, when you start out, as anyone before the age of science pretty well did, with a belief that God has already given you the answer to this, you see the events in the world in that frame. The baby whose crying deprives his mother of sleep is seen to prove that babies are selfish and the idea that the baby only knows she is hungry and has no way to feed herself or ask politely will not occur.

But, when you have science, you observe the events without the frame, and you can see more clearly. Maria Montessori, who was the first woman physician in Italy, studied children as part of her internship**. She watched them with as little a priori theory as she could. As she developed materials, if the children did not learn from them as intended, she did not blame the children but changed the materials or the method. She gathered a great deal of new information about the way children learn.

Jean Piaget was a student in a Montessori school when he was young. Later he wrote a paper on marine biology that was so impressive the society to which he had submitted it invited him to present it. He wrote to decline, because the meeting was being held past his bedtime; he was only 8.

It is no wonder that Jean Piaget revolutionized the study of young children. Where Montessori had studied three year olds, Piaget studied his own children from birth. He watched them, he played games with them to see at what age they could perform certain mental tasks.*** Like Montessori, he looked at them with an eye as free from preconception as it was possible for him to have. He became, not only a developmental psychologist, but also a Montessori teacher. Any students who worked with him had to take Montessori training before they began. As a Montessori teacher, one of my major tasks was to sit and observe the classroom when the children were busy. It is that observing with as little prejudice as possible that leads to new knowledge.

* It wasn't just the idea -- when I read Fischer's book, the example he used and the words were exactly what had been quoted to me from Great-grandfather Upton.
**Because of her gender, she was assigned to work with feeble minded children. That work led her to further develop educational tools for them, some the creation of others, some her own. When her impaired students tested out at age level with normal Italian children, the authorities in both medicine and education were impressed with what a great job she had done. Montessori was appalled that normal children were being so poorly taught that her students could do as well as they did and went on to apply the materials and methods she had used with six year olds to normal three year olds. Montessori approached this work in a new way partially because, before she studied medicine, she studied engineering. How lucky for children that her father indulged her intellectual curiosity.
***It was Piaget's work that showed that one reason babies demand to be fed right now is that they have no sense of time. Now is all there is. When a baby is hungry, he is starving to death, he has always been starving to death, and he will always be starving to death. When the baby can wait the few moments his mother needs to pick him up and feed him, he has learned about time.

Portrait of Jean Piaget courtesy of Robert Kovsky; Maria Montessori courtesy of Edith Stein. This is my favorite picture of Montessori; it shows her as the young woman who was sent to speak to the issue of women's suffrage in Italy. She was chosen because feminists were, then as now, dismissed as ugly women who couldn't find husbands. Montessori so obviously was not.

Some Days They Sing

Do go over to Huffingtonpost.com and read Sam Stein's Dodd's Filibuster Threat Stalls Wiretap Bill to know why I am in a singularly happy mood.

Senator Chris Dodd won a temporary victory today after his threats of a filibuster forced Democratic leadership to push back consideration of a measure that would grant immunity to telecom companies that were complicit in warrantless surveillance.

The measure was part of a greater bill to reorganize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Earlier on Monday, the Senate, agreed to address a bill that would have overhauled FISA, authorized the monitoring of people outside the United States, given secret courts the power to approve aspects of surveillance, and granted telecom companies retroactive immunity for past cooperation.

But the threat of Dodd's filibuster, aimed primarily at the latter measure, persuaded Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, to table the act until January. ***Dodd flew back from Iowa last night to personally rally against the amendment to the Protect America Act. After the Senate agreed, by a vote of 79 to 10, to move to debate, Dodd took to the floor. Over the course of the day, the Connecticut Democrat criticized the idea of granting immunity. Expanding on similar remarks made by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI, he noted that that the original FISA bill already included an immunity clause and that the courts, not Congress, should decide whether telecom companies deserve legal protections.

While he never technically conducted a filibuster, according to aides, Dodd left the floor only once, to address a press gathering. He did, on occasion cede time to his Democratic colleagues. But even then, they say, he remained engaged in the debate.

"Everyone who spoke on the floor said they were grateful for Dodd taking a stand," said a staffer to the Senator who asked not to be named. "They said if it weren't for him they wouldn't be having this much-needed debate."

Dodd was the one Senator currently running for the White House who left the campaign trail to debate the Protect America Act, an absence he hinted at while on the Senate floor.

Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joseph Biden did offer their rhetorical support for the filibuster. Dodd, according to aides, will rejoin the three on the campaign trail tomorrow.

I can't literally throw confetti down on Dodd and his colleagues, but I can and have e-mailed them and thanked them for their service to the country.

And I wonder about Clinton, Obama, and Biden who were too busy campaigning to return to Washington and fight for the Constitution.

One of the things that no one is asking so far in the debates or in interviews, is how the candidates feel about restoring constitutional guarantees and what they would do about it if elected. Kucinich has spoken to it, and we know that if by some miracle he should win he would stand firm for this issue. Edwards and Richardson are not senators and so could not do anything today. But Obama, Clinton, and Biden are all in the Senate. All three of them could have gone to support Dodd, all three of them should have gone to support Dodd. But, only Dodd cared enough to leave the campaign trail for a day and do what he believes is right. Only Dodd, of the four senators running for the Democratic nomination, has shown us that he will stand up and be counted for the Constitution that they all have sworn to uphold.

So, set off the fireworks. Throw the confetti. Release the balloons. There are some heroes out there. And today ten of them stood up and were counted.

The ten Democratic, of course, senators who stood and were counted today:
Barbara Boxer of California, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Maria Cantwell of Washington State, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and Ron Wyden of Oregon. We may not have won this one, that remains to be seen. But, these ten Senators gave us reason to celebrate the human spirit. Thank you.

And, it looks like Senator Reid is going to keep the Senate partially in session over much of the Christmas recess to prevent recess appointments. Maybe the Democrats will notice those of their number who do have guts and realize that a spine is a wonderful thing.

Fireworks by Grucci.com
Confetti by ImageEngineering.com
Balloons by Instalight.com
Do click on any of the photos to enlarge.

These Are Our Kids

Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast has posted War May Be The Least of Our Problems, about the suicide problem among the military (averaging 17 a day) that you would do well to read. This is a problem that is not going away and we are not prepared for it. The families of the soldiers are not prepared. The military is not prepared. The VA is not prepared. Our communities are not prepared. The nation as a whole is not prepared. Not prepared to deal with it, to help the soldiers, to provide the kinds of care that would make a difference, to deal with the aftermath among families. Hell, mostly this administration is ignoring it and sweeping it under the rug.

These are our kids. They volunteered for the military because they wanted to protect America. They go to Iraq, the vast majority of them at least initially believing the reasons they were given for going. My local paper had a letter to the editor this weekend by a soldier who is a soldier for these reasons, who is willing to give his life to protect our lives and freedom. And we damn well owe it to these brave young people to make sure that their trust is not betrayed; that they are not sent into wars that are unnecessary or that may be making things worse for us in the future; that when we do send them, we send enough of them; that we equip them with the best body armor and vehicles; that we provide enough of the best care for them when they are wounded; that we don't send them again and again into battle with no end in sight; that we don't keep them in battle beyond their terms of service by stop-loss measures. We ask that they kill and die for us. We need to never do that unless there is a reason worthy of that sacrifice.

And when they are so wounded in spirit that 17 of them commit suicide every day, we need to figure out what to do about that and do it. And that doing needs to include what do we do about their survivors. About the parents and children and spouses and siblings and friends that go bereaved of their loved ones forever more.

Birth Mothers

Bitch, Ph.D has posted Adoption: Birth Mothers Are People, Too concerning the book The Girls Who Went Away, about birth mothers who gave their children up for adoption in the days before Roe v. Wade. It's a perspective that most of us don't think about very deeply. The argument is there for women who are considering an abortion, that they can choose to give birth and adopt the baby out. But what we don't really think about is what it is like to have adopted a baby out.

For two years one of my parenting clients was a young woman who had given her younger child up for adoption because she was afraid of his father. The police were unable to offer her help. She believed that the only thing she could do to get this man completely out of her life and keep her children safe was to hide the existence of the baby from him. To give him up for adoption.

She first came to me after she had given the child up and returned to town. She came to see me once a week for two years, and she never came once that she didn't cry. She ached for her child. It was supposed to be an open adoption, but Alaska doesn't enforce the open adoption agreement if the adoptive parents decide they don't want the birth mother involved.* She gave her child to this couple. She was supposed to get pictures and letters and be able to see him at least once a year. She never got a single picture or letter. All of her letters and the letters of her lawyer were returned unopened.

I have never worked with a parent I was less able to help. I have never known a young woman who I wanted to fight for more. I will never know if she could have trusted her baby's father. But I do know that I have never known a woman to regret an abortion the way that young woman regretted that adoption. It left her wounded to the soul.

Adoption is not a choice normally made by the Tlingits in this area. The tribes do not give up children, and if the mother or parents can't raise the child, extended family members will take it in until circumstances change. I worked with many grandmothers who were raising their grandkids, and even two great-grandmothers.

In those cases where there is no extended family to step in, pregnant teens and their children may end up in the foster care system. There is a woman who fosters young, pregnant, Tlingit girls and their babies. She continues to foster both mother and child while the mother finishes school. The foster mom wants the young mother to have a good start as a mother and as near a normal life as a teen as possible. The young mother goes to the prom and football games as well as learning about child development. She grows as a maturing teen and as a mother. If she "ages out**" of the foster system, the foster mom keeps her without money from the state for her care and works with her until she is ready to take her child and go out on her own. And the foster mom is there to support her in many ways for years. Many of the young mothers she has helped still drop in and visit on a weekly basis. Like any daughter would.

I know that the circumstances between my young client and these young mothers are different, and this superb foster mother would not have been there for my client in any case. But I also know that if there were more women like this foster mom, there would be fewer young women who would have to make either choice about a baby. More intact families. And what a blessing that would be.

* To the best of my knowledge, no state does.
** Becomes 18, when the state stops paying for her care and expects her to go out on her own.

Photo: Ashes to Blessing

Who To Vote For?

I haven't said much about politics lately. It is too depressing.

For decades I was a Libertarian. The platform of maximum social and economic liberty seemed sensible and sane and in line with the Constitution. Over time, as I saw regulations relaxed and learned that not all corporations are run by saints, I came to realize that pure libertarianism is like pure communism: it sounds real good and if only people acted in real life as they do in theory it would work for the good of all.

But, we have learned painfully that communism doesn't work in a pure form; even if it doesn't get involved with a dictatorship, people don't put maximum effort in for minimum reward. There has to be something in it for me or I won't do my best.

And the same is true for the libertarian dream. There aren't enough leaders of industry who will self-regulate when it hurts their bottom line. Instead of the ideal of the corporation that wants superior workers and so pays above union scale to get them, we have the many corporations that off-shore their labor so that they can pay slave wages to people working under slave conditions. As much as I would like to believe that corporations are as good as three year olds and will live up to expectations when treated with respect, it just ain't so. People need rules, and people with power don't like to obey rules. Don't think the rules apply to them.

Nonetheless, I used to vote Libertarian anyway. There wasn't a chance we would win anything big, but we might influence the winners if we got enough votes, and since I believed that influence would be in the direction of freedom, that would be good.

And then the 2000 elections happened. The results were frightening on so many levels. By 2003 I could see that this country was going in the direction of reduced freedom, that we were going to leave our grandchildren with less hope and liberty than we had. And I could see from what was going on in Washington that having one party in control of all branches of the federal government was a very bad idea. If we were to break this one-party rule, no third party had a chance. Only the Democrats had a chance to supplant the Republicans in one branch or another. So, I voted Democrat for the first time in my life.*

And things got worse. And in 2006, the electorate reared up on its hind legs and voted the Democrats into majorities in both house of Congress. Perhaps not big enough majorities, but nonetheless, majorities.

And what good has it done us? Does the Democratic led Congress vote the way the electorate wants them to? It seems to me that instead of taking their cue from their election and the increasingly low approval ratings of Bush and his policies, of the fact that ever larger numbers of people think the country is going in the wrong direction, they vote for whatever George Bush wants. They renewed FISA for six months, with a promise to revisit it then and correct its most egregious parts. And then they allowed themselves to pass it again, with the added provision that telecommunication companies that went along with the administrations requests for warrantless wiretaps on US citizens be immune from prosecution.

Until Senator Chris Dodd put a hold on the Senate FISA bill, which, I understand, will prevent its passage. At last. Someone with guts. Dodd joins Kucinich, in the House, whose introduction of Articles of Impeachment against Cheney also takes a stand in action against the erosion of the Constitution.

So, now I have two men to choose between. It will probably be Kucinich, again, because I agree so closely with everything he says. But, I could give my vote to Dodd if he made the ticket without much concern. A candidate with guts.

For most of the rest of the Democrats in Congress, I suggest that they follow the link to Mark Fiore's Spineocrat

I think they need a good strong dose.

*Ah, perfect record -- I've never yet voted for anyone who actually won an election.

Teach a Man to Fish. . .

When I was three and my baby brother Storm lived mostly in the hospital for the six months of his life, my mother's cousin Edith cared for me so that my mother could be with him. I saw her regularly until I was about seven, and then I didn't see her again until I was 17. Aunt Flo, Grandma Herndon, and I attended services at her church one Sunday and the potluck after. And when Edith walked in I recognized her instantly by the swelling of love that filled my heart. I wish I had a picture of Edith to show you. Love radiated from her like warmth from a fireplace. The 300+ pounds of her was hardly a large enough container for her generosity And the 100 years she lived was hardly long enough for the world to be so blessed.

Edith was a member of the Church of the Brethren. As were many of my grandmother's relatives, some were even ministers. There has never been a family funeral that they didn't attend, a time that they didn't support this godless branch of the family, or a single instance of their trying to convert us. I simply cannot imagine any people more loving and kind and gentle.

I tend to feel proprietary about the Church and am never surprised when I hear of something wonderful that they have done. They base their lives on "Continuing the work of Jesus. Peacefully. Simply. Together." They are not interested in doctrine but in making life better for people. They believe that there is enough to go around, and they work to make that happen.

A few years ago, a friend turned me on to Heifer International. I had been contributing to them for about a year when I discovered that they had been founded by The Church of the Brethren. Well, of course. It didn't surprise me, but it did make me feel proud, once again, of this religious side of our family.

Since tomorrow is World Food Day,* what better way to celebrate it than to learn about and perhaps contribute to a non-profit built on the idea that what hungry children need is not milk that is drunk and then gone, but a heifer, which serves as the foundation of a life free of dependence.

Heifer International

Solving the problem of world hunger has been a heartfelt vision of many people, but the sheer magnitude of the problem has overwhelmed the most sincere individuals and corporations who are keen on vision but bereft of finances or logistics. Heifer Project International is the outgrowth of one man with a vision and a practical method of implementation that did not require inordinate financial underwriting. Born a native of Ohio in 1893, Dan West, a life-long Brethren graduated from Manchester College in 1917 and spent the next two years as a conscientious objector during World War I. After working for the Emergency Peace Campaign in 1936 he traveled to Spain in order to serve as a relief worker following the Spanish Civil War. Sitting under an almond tree one day, he also felt the challenge of feeding hungry people as ubiquitous images of poverty and depravation surrounded him daily. Thinking of his own daughters being healthy and well-fed back in the United States, he believed that he must start a process that could bring that same wellness to the children of Spain. But how? He observed that as fast as you give milk to these children they drink it and it is gone, and the cost of importing more milk was economically prohibitive for a war torn nation engrossed in a monumental recovery effort. Then one day an idea came to him. Why not bring cows to Spain and produce the milk here? Why not give each cow to a family with the stipulation that its offspring must be given to another family who would, in turn, give a calf to yet another family? And so on and so on! Somewhat analogous to: 'Little steps climb big mountains.'

The Wikipedia entry has this to add:

Today the organization is known as Heifer International and gives gifts of sheep, rabbits, honeybees, pigs, llamas, water buffalo, chicks, ducks, goats, geese and trees as well as heifers. As of 2006, these animals and plants have been distributed in more than 125 countries around the globe. Each gift perpetuates Heifer's interest in agroecology and sustainability..

If you are at all interested in participating in this wonderful work, go to Heifer Gift Catalogue

The children's book, Beatrice's Goat** tells the true story of a girl who, because of her family's gift of a goat, got to go to school and eventually became a teacher.


*The Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN calls for the day to ensure humanity's freedom from hunger.

** I stole the image from Amazon.com. Obviously, you can't Search Inside here.

I Told You Teens Are Wonderful

Ok, so I found this link on Echidne of the Snakes and it was so delightful that I had to share it with you.
Sea of Pink

Having spent a good deal of time working with high school students, this confirms my favorable opinion of young people. Good for them. Good for us, that they are growing up to take their place as adults in this world that surely needs them.

We Just Don't Know

General Wesley Clark says we don't know yet what happened to Pat Tillman, without dismissing the idea of murder rather than friendly fire. We don't know, if it was murder, how high it goes. The day was when I would have believed such an idea had come from someone with tin foil lining his hat. But, sad to say, no longer. I look at the other things that have happened in the last seven years, and I put nothing beyond
possibility.

What happened? Why did it happen? Who initiated it? Who blessed the cover-up?

And how does executive privilege factor into this?

I want to weep for my country. That we have come to a place where we can even consider such a tragedy.

My Candidate

So, I keep visiting other people and copying the good YouTubes they have found. Because it is important that as many people as possible see good stuff. I found this at Anything They Say. . ., and you should read the entire post, A Brief and Shining Message , by theBhc.

I supported Dennis Kucinch last election; I support him this election. It saddens me greatly that the likelihood of his getting the nomination is nonexistent. However, he is the most honest man in Washington and has no fear of speaking truth to power. The likelihood of a man who the press has decided to relegate to the sidelines and who spent parts of his childhood sleeping in the family car, with the rest of the family, ever becoming president is extremely low. But, if this were the country we were told it is, where anyone could grow up to be president, this is the man who would do it.

Sadly, they meant that a man with poverty of brains and grit could do it, but a man from a poor background could not.

Memorial Day Visits

There are a number of very good Memorial Day posts you might want to visit.
Sandy Szwarc has a piece on the Missing Man's Table.
Julie, at Thinking About talks about Rethinking the Draft.
Jill over at Brilliant At Breakfast has a number of posts that concern the war and the losses we are suffering. To me, the most touching isThe Loss Most of Us Can't Even Fathom.
Gawilli at Back In the Day talks about Memorial Day and her father.
At Pandagon, Bring Them Home looks at the 980 graves that have been filled since last Memorial Day.
At Along the Way. Joared tells us about the Hawaian Lantern Festival
Donna, at Changing Places posted History, a good read that mentions Shiloh and the lessons she has taught her son.
On Lassiter Space Jay talks about Honoring The Fallen, Philly Style.

Random Thoughts on Memorial Day

From early childhood, I would go to the cemetaries with Mama, and sometimes Aunt Flo, on Memorial Day to put flowers on all of the local family graves. Some were veterans, most were not. My father, my lost baby brother, Mama's lost baby brother and five year old sister. Grandparents and great grandparents, aunts, uncles. It was a solemn time, a time of remembrance. One year, when I was in my 30s, we went and Mama had to search for my brother Storm's grave and I broke down -- there is something of total despair to looking for an infant in a grave yard.





Please click pictures to enlarge.




Today is Memorial Day, at least the day that Nixon decided we would celebrate, the last Monday in May, giving us a three-day weekend, a chance to travel and have picnics and a good time. According to Memorial Day History

While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays)

But, the real meaning of the day is to honor the war dead. How terrible to lose a grown child to such a death. To see him or her off to defend the coutry and never have them come home again. Although my family has fought in most of the wars that have been fought in this country, we have record of deaths in only a few. Benjamin Proctor, the 16 year old brother of one of my ancesstresses died in the Battle of Bunker Hill and my great-grandmother's father, John Nevins Mace died in the Civil War . The brothers Philip, Ephraim, and Benjamin Parkhurst served in the Revolution, my grandfather Percy Herndon served in Siberia during WWI, my uncle, Leland Hunt, served in the Pacific Theater during WWII. I'm sure that if I searched the family history Julie did for my 60th birthday, I would find more. I seem to remember reading something about Queen Anne's and the French and Indian Wars, but I'm not sure.

In addition to the dead, war also brings us back wounded warriors. Some are physically wounded, all are spiritually wounded. It is important to remember these, as well. Visit Bill Moyers Interviews Maxine Hong Kingston and read about the incredible writing project that Kingston has done with Vietnam vets, bringing forth stories and poems that have allowed these people to finally give voice to the experiences they had. This project has used writing as a change agent, allowing soldiers to tell the truth and so make peace with the horrors of the past.

To me, the saddest thing about this section of the Vietnam War Memorial is the ages. The oldest one was 41, the age of my youngest child. And I'm sure that this section of the wall is pretty much like all the others in that respect. Week by week, as I watch the list of the fallen on This Week, the majority are under 25.

Mistress's Hoop Skirt

When I went back to work, when Richard was a few months old, we were living near the Haight Ashbury, on Fell Street, in San Francisco. I found a local woman, about the age I am now, to care for him.

Mrs. Johnson was a wonderful care giver. She understood and loved children, and they loved her. In addition to caring for children, she provided a home for a blind woman who was over 100 years old, having been born into slavery. One day, when I went to pick Richard up and was waiting for Mrs. Johnson to bring him in from playing in the backyard, I got to talking to this woman and she told me a story that she had lived and heard, but did not remember.

She was a toddler during the Civil War. The Master was selling off all of the slaves that he could spare; as a baby she was on the list. Her mother had come to the plantation with Mistress; they had grown up together. So, when the time came to round up and sell the slaves, her Mistress had gagged her and tied her to her own leg. She was carried around under this woman's hoop skirts until the danger had passed. She told me that her mother had told her that when they gagged and tied her up, she would cry and so would her mother and the Mistress; they knew no other way to save her.

Isn't it truly amazing, the things people do?

Burnout

I had a job I loved. It could have been created just for me. I used my best skills and fulfilled my deepest passions. I had fun while doing measurable good. I developed and taught my own parenting classes, wrote handouts and educational materials, did parenting coaching, wrote grant proposals and progress reports, supervised and trained staff, maintained a library of books and videos to lend parents, drove around making home visits, and didn't have to own a car. I helped people get their children out of foster care; if they were referred to me early enough, I helped them keep their children from going into the foster system to begin with. I went to people's homes and sat at the table, drinking coffee, and talking about their children. I gave advice and people followed it. I consulted other professionals about the needs of children and was certified as an expert witness for the court. I actively researched children's issues to the depth of my curiosity, using that knowledge to help parents help children.I made a difference to families. More and more children called out my name in public places, at times running to give me a hug. I had statewide recognition for the work I did. I called myself the community grandmother. Other people who had worked in this job usually lasted less than 18 months. I did it for 11 years.

I had a job I loved. And then, I couldn't do it anymore. And when I burned out it wasn't because of the child abuse or the horrible stories women told me about their own childhood or the mistreatment they had received at the hands of the men who should have loved them. It wasn't even because I was getting such a warped view of men, dealing with the victims of child and spousal abuse. If the majority of men I heard about in my job were toxic, some of them were wonderful fathers and husbands. Often the fault lay with the woman, or there was no fault, only lack of knowledge. Besides, if it got too bad, I could always see Richard or talk to Ted and remember just how good men can be.

What got to me, in the end, were the women I could not help. The women, like Rodin's Fallen Caryatid, who were crushed by the weight of a burden that no one person should be asked to bear. The women that no one could help. I carried a client load of at least 36 and that was only part of my job, which meant that I saw them for an hour every other week, working Tuesday through Saturday. Alternate Saturdays, that last year, the last clients I saw were not the same ethnic group; didn't live in the same area; other than being young and female, weren't even close in appearance. But they could have been the same woman. (And I had many more just like them.) This was how I ended my week. Every week. There was one visit that was symptomatic of them all. The young mother told me that she had almost hit her kids the day before. In response to questioning, she slowly revealed that instead of hitting them, she told them to go hide in their rooms because she was afraid of what she might otherwise do. It had been Friday of a long, hard week. She had gone to pick them up after a full shift at her minimum wage job. Her feet hurt. She had been tired and hungry and cross. They had been tired and hungry and cross. The boys started fighting in the car, and although I had taught her that the thing to do in that case was to pull off the road and just sit there, saying nothing, until they quieted down, she couldn't do that because she was afraid that if she did, she would turn around, lean across the seat, and beat them senseless. When she got them home, carrying the youngest up three flights of stairs, the apartment was messy. She started to cook dinner, knowing that if she sat down she would never get up again. The boys were fussing and fighting and pulling on her jeans for attention, demanding to be fed right now. And so, she told them to go hide in their room. It happened at least three nights a week like this. There were a lot of long, hard weeks.

No, she couldn't stop after work and take a walk or sit and have even a glass of water to relax, because her babysitter charged her $5 for every minute she was late; a couple of times a month she would get stuck in traffic and be two or three minutes late and it made a major dent in her budget. It meant she couldn't afford to pack a lunch for a day or two. No, she didn't have any support from family or the boys' father. No one, not even a friend she could trade babysitting with, to give her any respite.

What fun had she had that week, I asked. She and the boys had watched Mulan. In parts of Juneau TV doesn't get reception without cable and she didn't have it, only about six tapes, all children's tapes, purchased for $1 each at the pawn shop. How many times had she seen Mulan? Oh, at least 200. She was always broke; every week she paid what she had to to house and feed her family, and then the rest went to pay back the last person she had borrowed from. Which meant she needed to borrow from some one else to get through until the next paycheck. We checked her budget and it was bare bones. I have no idea how she survived; she certainly wasn't wasting any money that I could see.

And when I left, I closed her door behind me and leaned back against the wall; my glasses were too fogged by tears for me to dare to take the stairs. Because there was no way to help her, except to totally change society so that young women don't end up with burdens like this.

I had a job I loved. And then I didn't.

Counting My Blessings

You know that I have strong feelings about how the overweight are treated by many medical personnel. I've had doctors suggest that I wouldn't have gotten that sty if I weighed less. Hell, I had an ENT, who eventually operated on the congenitally malformed turbinates in my sinuses, suggest weight loss surgery (which would have had absolutely no effect on my turbinates or the problems they caused)! And, when I said I wasn't going for a procedure with that high a fatality rate, he told me it was actually twice as high as the horrible numbers I had just quoted.

So, when I read things like this, Just Lose Weight, on Sandy Szwarc's blog, Junkfood Science, I am so grateful for my physician.

Dr. Anne Standerwyck has been taking care of me for years, and she takes excellent care of me. She listens to my concerns, takes the time to make sure she has covered all the bases, gives me thorough care, and never suggests that all of my problems would be over if only I were thin. Our first visit I told her about my experience with trying to become thin and why I had decided that I would rather be this size than keep trying to lose weight and keep getting ever bigger. Dr. Anne, who anyone can tell by looking is a naturally slender young woman and certainly can have no personal experience of the heartbreak of trying, decade after decade, to change your body, only to have it rebound on you so that you finally realize that you would have been better off if you had just left it alone, still seems to have absolutely no bias against fat people. Her office waiting room has chairs with strong arms for those of us who need the help standing, and good chairs without arms, for people who don't fit the chairs with arms. Her staff are always helpful and friendly and, no more than Dr. Anne herself, would they ever treat any patient differently than others.

Bless her.

Because It's There

My friend Pseub, knowing how I love the stars, sent me pictures of the ten photos voted as the best taken by Hubble in the past 16 years. I started to publish my favorites, but for some reason I couldn't copy them from her e-mail, so I went out with Google Image and found them. So, Pseub, these aren't exactly the shots you sent. I don't know why having heard about the death of Molly Ivins makes me want to share these with you, but it does. Perhaps because her soul and her mind were every bit as unexpectedly magical as these pictures -- that these could be taken, that her columns could be written, are such a celebration of the human reach.

The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes.

The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.

In A Nutshell follows.

Jonas Salk is My Hero

J read my Friendship post and wanted to know what polio season was. Oh, the things we neglect to tell our children! It used to be dangerous to do certain things during certain time(s) of the year, because you were more likely to get polio. It was probably summer, because I remember pools being closed when there was an outbreak. And, of course, you didn't have surgery during polio season unless you had no choice. Probably Colleen got tonsillitis in the summer most of the time, which makes sense because when we had ours out, I missed school.

I remember watching Johnny Carson one night when J was a baby and his guest was Jonas Salk. Johnny told Salk how that morning at breakfast his son had asked who his guest was and then wanted to know who Jonas Salk was and then what polio was. Johnny and Salk and I all sat there and cried! And, I'm crying now. Because of what Salk did, there are children who don't know what polio is!

I decided to google polio season and this is what I found.